Thursday, June 26, 2003

According to TCS, a consortium of private mercenary units has offered to enforce a cease-fire in the war-torn Congo for $200 million.

One of the more interesting and less pondered questions of globalization, I think, is the potential for multinational corporations/consortia to train and equip their own private armies (essentially eliminating the monopoly of force by the state). There are countless potential markets in war-torn areas to be pried open by military force, and if a band of mercenaries manages to succeed in pacifying a country the size of Congo for $200 million, war might become profitable, at least in the Third World. In any case, mercenary pacification of the Congo would be a lot more humane than the blood-drenched tribal vendettas and cannibalism that are going on right now.